I'm glad to say that I was proven
wrong; the dialogue in The Avengers was witty and amusing but it
didn't come off as being forced. The Avengers had just the right mix
of action and humor and every one of the ensemble cast got a chance
to shine, even the two relatively normal members of The Avengers,
Black Widow and Hawkeye. And in a bit of film-making legerdemain,
Joss Whedon managed to use all the resources at his disposal, namely
the above mentioned action and humor blended with some good pacing,
to distract the audience (or at least this viewer) from the film's
143 minute length and a major plot-hole. At the movie's end, I
walked out of the theater surprised at how long it had been and I
wasn't even aware of the plot-hole until someone else pointed it out
to me.

Hawkeye and Black
Widow, normal people with freakish skill sets

The plot-hole in question is the
unexplained transition of the Hulk from out-of-control rage monster
to in-control rage monster. This is a pretty big plot-hole since
out-of-control Hulk ends up being as much a danger to the other
Avengers as the film's villain, Loki, and wreaks considerable havoc
on board S.H.I.E.L.D.'s flying aircraft carrier halfway through the film
while in-control Hulk plays an important role in foiling Loki's
attempt at conquering the world. One gets the feeling that a pivotal
scene ended up on the cutting room floor, perhaps to prevent the film
from being overlong.

Out-of-control Hulk
smashes expensive government property

In-control Hulk smashes
extraterrestrial invader

The absence of any explanation of this
change in the Hulk's character is all the more suprising considering
an embarrassingly clumsy and completely unnecessary bit of exposition
which occurs early in the film when Loki appears at a S.H.I.E.L.D.
facility. Dr. Selvig, the mentor of Thor's love interest in the filmbearing his name, upon seeing Loki, blurts out, "Loki –
brother of Thor!", presumably for the benefit of anyone who
hasn't seen Kenneth Branagh's contribution to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. What's particularly puzzling is that throughout the film,
Thor, through his words and actions, repeatedly explains his
relationship to Loki, rendering this clunky bit of dialogue moot.
It's so bad that I suspect it may have been thrown in there as some
kind of joke, especially considering that Joss Whedon is very adept
at exposition, the one exception that comes to mind being the first
few minutes of Firefly's The Train Job.

Loki, brother of Thor

Plotholes and clumsy exposition aside,
my only real quibble about The Avengers is the question it raises of
what will the Avengers do next? The villain for the next film to
feature this superpowered team was revealed after the credits, so we
know who the Avengers will be battling next. However, what villainy
will the individual heroes attempt to foil in their own films? After
all, Iron Man 3 is currently in production and sequels to Captain America and Thor are reported to be in the works. After having
stopped an attempted invasion of Earth by extraterrestrials, battling
more "mundane" threats such as Russian arms dealers or
other miscreants seeking monetary gain would seem a bit beneath them.

Black Widow, moments
away from taking down some Russian arms dealers – it's difficult to
imagine her going back to her day job after having helped thwart an
extraterrestrial invasion